I gotta admit this post over at Sports & Grits cracked me up. It’s the latest attempt to put Dawgnation up on a psychoanalytical couch in trying times. And as you might expect, pretty much everyone who disagrees with the author’s point of view is reduced to being a religious fanatic, a total wuss or an ego wanker. Then there are the bold, the few who are the only rational supporters of the program:

… We are the people who are accepting of what is necessary to see the program in the National Title hunt every year. We want results not empty promises. We want wins not memories of how we almost did this or came real close to doing that.

This debate has gone on in one form or fashion since the days of the pre-Rivals Vent. Back then the sides were labeled beans and bashers, but it possessed the same “everybody who sees things differently from us is a dumbass” tone. (Of course, back then after the ’97 Cocktail Party the beans took the side that Jim Donnan was a greater coaching genius than Steve Spurrier and stayed with it even after it became obviously and painfully apparent that he was no such thing, so maybe one side had a point.)

Anyway, it’s a fun read for the most part, although I wouldn’t break our fan base down in that way. I’d go with two groups: those who are absolutely certain they know the best course of action for the program to take going forward and those who are frustrated by the recent turn of events and simply hope that Greg McGarity knows what he’s doing. Count me in the latter, but in any event, this seems like a good time for a reader poll.

58 responses to “Of Disney Dawgs and “cold blooded sausage makers””

I’m a bean. (I don’t frequent enough message boards to know the new term, I guess “Disney Dawg?”) But I’m fed up with Richt. It’s clear to me that a change is needed. What did it? That G.D. FG. Basically, Georgia has what EDSBSers will recognize as “bitch mentality.” I’ve recognized it for awhile, but the FG brought me completely out of denial.

The first crack in my confidence came during homecoming in 2006 when Vandy beat us. We had lost to UT the week before. That started a streak of consecutive losses to SEC East teams. Yes, we went 0-5 against SEC East starting with that 2006 UT game.

I held out hope he could get things turned around. We even seemed to be heading in the right direction in 2007 when we went to the Sugar bowl. The hope was quickly dashed in 2008 as we did not meet goals and it seems that Stafford, Moreno, and MoMass hid a great deal of our flaws.

Even in 2009 I realized we had lost a ton of great players. I looked at it as a rebuilding year to get everything in order. Yes we were blown out a few times and our special teams were getting worse. Richt made a change at DC and a new special teams coach was brought in. I had restored hope we would get this thing going in the right direction.

Then this year happened. The special teams (kickoff) was much improved. The defense seemed better and I can even give some on that since it is a new scheme. However, the play on the field just showed me these guys either don’t know how to win or they don’t have the sense of urgency necessary to win. There doesn’t seem to be any real passion. We are taking steps backward when we should be plowing forward. It just seems Richt has lost the team and lost his will to coach. It doesn’t look like fun for anyone.

UGA football should never get to this point. Ever. This team performs at the level of UK. UK I tell you. He is 2-8 against UF. There are two reasons Richt has not been fired. 1. He is a nice guy. 2. He beats Tech

This is a great example of hindsight. You claim to have had a “crack in my confidence” in a year where we had just played for the SEC Championship 3 of the prior 4 years. And you were losing confidence? Right.

Also, everybody likes to say they started noticing “problems’ after the 2005 Sugar Bowl. Dude, did anybody else besides me watch the 2005 SEC Championship? We beat the ever living shit out of LSU, a team coached by Les Miles, who, you guessed, has been touted here as a better coach than Richt, despite his 1-2 record against Richt and -28 scoring margin, almost a double digit per game margin). Just saying. Everybody’s a genius in hindsight.

We lost to Vandy at home. We went on to lose 5 straight to SEC opponents. I guess you were swelling with confidence eh?

I still thought CMR would pull us through. I believed he could get things going in the right direction until this year. I have lost confidence in him and even if he can turn things around at this point, I personally don’ t want him as coach at UGA anymore.

Senator,you just made those morons at S&G legit by mentioning them on your fine blog.Kinda sad cause me thinks they’re actually techies in disguise trying to stir shit up.Which,by the way,they do well.

A friend asked me if I was “finally off of the Richt Train”…and I put my answer to him this way: I’m not off of the train yet, but the scenery needs to improve by the next stop (the end of next season), or I’m changing trains.

I was listening to Chuck and Chernoff yesterday and Chernoff listed three things that need to happen next season for Richt to keep his job. He actually said that only two of the three need to occur, but any two of them need to happen. Here they are: win ten games, beat Florida, win the East. I can’t really disagree with him…I feel like if Richt does any two of those three, he’ll keep his job and we will have seen an improvement. Having said that, I think it’s impossible that any team will win ten games next season and not win the East, so let’s make it look more like this: win ten games (thus winning the East) or win the east AND beat Florida. Thoughts?

If he wins the East and beats Tech, it would probably be enough for most people.

Unless there are some dramatic improvements between now and next September, I see us starting the season 0-2. 4 of the next 5 games are winnable, MSU will be tough and I am assuming UT, Vandy, and Ole Miss will be down. Florida will probably end up being the make or break game for Richts career at UGA. We could close out the season with four wins if Auburn has a down year. So if he goes 9-3 or 8-4 with a very easy schedule, should he be fired? I don’t see it happening, even if we don’t win the SEC East.

1. Blow UCF out of the Liberty Bowl
2. Close on this recruiting class
3. Beat Boise State

If those three things happen(ed), then I wouldn’t feel poorly about ’11. I don’t think they all three need to happen for Richt to remain coach, but as sure didn’t expect to lose to UCF. I really thought we’d let it all hang out, play loose and make plays. When that didn’t happen, I had to step off the train.

Maybe the staff can close on this class and maybe they can get the team ready to beat Boise State, but I think those are longshots at this point.

As far as what needs to happen in ’11, if we don’t win the SEC then I just don’t see it.

I took the poll and checked “I ain’t happy, but…..” just being honest about my personal abilities and insight into all things wrong at UGa! I was never in the arena after High School. I did play for Frank Orgel,Conrad Nix, Robert Davis while there. Talented group of coaches too! They’ve all won large.
It seems to me that the problems are deeper than just replacing a head coach. The thing is, the same situations Richt had to tangle with are still in existence. And, barring a complete change in direction by the Adams/McGarity administration and the high $ contributor hierarchy, those problems may continue to plague the program. On another note, I took a look at the staff Will Muschamp is assembling for the Gators and it has all the appearance of an NFL football staff. Fresh and with a lot of energy . I hope our veteran coaches and grad assistants can keep up. With the negativity surround Mark Richt it will make it harder for him to assemble his dream team. Does he have to coach, recruit and discipline like his competitors to win in this league? Parity. You a Steve Forbert fan Senator?

Good thoughts, we have to realize there are forces at work here that are larger than football. There are very influential folks who shudder at the thought of Georgia becoming, say Bama. The football coach at Georgia, whoever he may be (hope it is ok with ESPN to assume it won’t be a girl) will never have the complete control Bama offered Saban. I don’t know as much football as other folks here, but I do know that.

In a sense, we will never satisfy the folks who think we should play for the big ring every year, because while it is nice to think about, you simply can’t have the cake and eat it too.

You have to examine the institutional will I have blabbered about before, we certainly want good….better than 6-7 for sure…but we don’t, in my humble opinion, want to make the control changes to become Bama.

In the mnds of many in the administration and some of the fan base, Vince had too much control, too much impact and too big a voice in the overall operation of the university.

This is certainly not the only reason we are where we are, but it makes the Georgia coach’s margin for error much slimmer than at some other schools, and NOT just Bama.

Georgia’s football history is constant in that it is peppered with good or even great years followed by periods of not-so-great and there is no reason to believe this will change….ever.

For instance, our three-year run from 80-83, when we were a top-two or three team in successive years was followed by a unilateral disarming and pretty soon we were back to “normal”.

If you don’t understand this you will never be happy as a Georgia fan.

If the UGA football coach had total control of what was going on we wouldn’t be playing FLA away every year and having only 3 home SEC games in even numbered years. You don’t think that is a disadvantage? If we tried to hire, for example, Nick Saban, the very first thing he would DEMAND is that we stop playing FLA in Jacksonville every year. Too big a disadvantage in that series and it totally screws up the rest of the schedule. If UGA wouldn’t agree to change that he would not take the job no matter what the money was.

i have to put myself in the group that doesn’t know nearly enough to make any pronouncements about what needs to be done. remember when we used to debate whether or not anything was actually wrong with uga football? that seems so quaint now. and can it not be said that there has, in fact, been a rather prescient contingent of fans who frankly seem to be more tuned in to football than some of our coaches (in such famous examples as the long drumbeat to wm’s ouster, our qb tipping his hand at the los, and the s/c deficiencies)?

that mere fans are continually validated in their criticisms by later decisions and statements made by actual coaches does not inspire my confidence that things will be magically better under the current regime.

We B-Ball Dawgs used to have a sayin that now been turned upside down. Now, what we need is a football team that will make our basketball team proud! Lets BBQ some Wildcat this weekend ya’ll and just let this football stuff ferment for bout 8 months for we start shooten it up again!

I’ve been a staunch Richt supporter. I certainly wasn’t happy about what I saw on the field, but I believed he could fix it. After what I saw in the Liberty Bowl, I don’t believe that anymore. In my mind, it was critical they have a respectable showing, and instead they looked timid, disinterested, and unprepared. It has been such a wretched couple of seasons that I couldn’t even muster the energy to get mad about losing the Liberty Bowl to a Conference USA team. It was, sadly, just not all that surprising an outcome.

I like Mark Richt from what I know of him as a man. I like him as the face of the program. The outcome I prefer is that he figures out what’s broken, fixes it and continues his career at UGA. But the outcome I expect is more of the same in 2011 and a new head coach in 2012.

Seems like there’s quite a bit of overlap in the categories S&G describes. A couple years ago blog trolls were characterizing me as both a Disney Dawg, a Richtophile and a “Pee-Pee Dawg.” Only reason I wouldn’t qualify as a “Holy Dawg,” I guess, is that I’m too much of a heathen commie pinko, but that’s another discussion for another time.

I haven’t lost my respect for Richt, but I think I’ve just about lost all my faith that he can pull the Dawgs out of this going-on-three-years slide. Don’t know what category that puts me in as far as S&G is concerned. If there’s some tiny outlier group for “Clinically Depressed Dawgs” who pray for the best while simultaneously fearing for the worst at all times, I guess mark me down as that.

I don’t have the answers, but after this season, I have a feeling he’s used all the capital he earned. I’m sure the administration really likes the “nice guy” but at some point the big money is gonna say, enough is enough if the winning isn’t there.

My guess is that 9 wins is the minimum, but probably wouldn’t give us the East so beating UF would definitely be a must. 9-3 with a loss to UF and I think he may still be gone. 10 wins with a loss to UF (and if no East) may still be acceptable to McGarity. I would find it hard to argue with 9/10 wins, but if neither of those includes UF and the East, who knows.

Just check back to S&G every day for the next 3 months (or the last 3 months) and you can read the exact same post…over and over and over. I’m with Pumpdawg, can’t believe you actually linked them…must be a REALLY slow day.

Watching Georgia lose to a Conference USA team confirmed for me that we’ve really fallen as a football program. Watching Alabama absolutely humiliate a top-10 Michigan State team gave me a pretty clear idea of just how far we’ve fallen.

I can’t quite bring myself to say that Richt should be fired just yet. But am I confident that Richt can (relatively quickly) get Georgia to the level that Alabama’s at these days? No.

I was a pretty ardent Richt supporter at the beginning of the season with the belief that if anyone had earned a chance to right the wrongs it was him: great guy and most importantly in the SEC, a long time winner. If you’d have told me at the beginning of this year i’d want Richt gone after the 2010 season i’d have told you you were crazy.

However, After this year it’s become painfully obvious that our program has been been in a steady decline since our last SEC championship. If you take an objective look at the wins and losses we have kept getting worse and the current Richt teams are miles apart from the Richt teams of 2001-2005. I could over look last year and I could overlook this year in and of itself but what we have now is a pattern. You simply cannot say that a worse W-L record every year for the past 3 years is anything else. Obviously, there are problems beyond just the head coach however, it is my firm belief that in college sports as opposed to pro sports if a program sucks, especially a program with the resources and advantages of georgia, at least 80% of that is the reesponsibility of the HC. The guy pickes the players, develops them, and more or less runs the program.

Personally I’ve resigned myself to the fact that georgia football will wander the wilderness for at least three more years, 2011 to be the final train wreck that sends Richt out of town, then 2012 and 2013 for the new HC to sort out the mess, in a best case scenario. Or we could be Tennessee for a while, a long while.

I would lovee for Richt and the guys to prove me 100% dead wrong in 2011. I think the guy’s a great guy and WAS a great head coach. However, i just don’t see that happening given the last five years. it’s really a shame considering how he elevated our program to a level none of us had ever seen after the 1980s.

I don’t know the extent of all the problems but they seem to be multiple. I not sure what all needs to be done to correct them and that is fine because I am just a average Bulldog Joe that has not ever coached in the arena. However, I am convienced that Richt is not sure how to get the Genie back in the bottle either.

Here is where I am.
1.) I fully expect to have at least 6-8 arrest this year.
2.) I do not feel the least bit confident that Georgia will beat Boise State.
3.) I think we will lose to USCe again after kicking a couple of FGs .

NM (blowing nose): the signs were there, I just refused to believe it. I guess the Sugar Bowl against WVU should’ve alarmed me, but I chalked it up to Georgia not being excited to be in Atlanta, as if that makes sense.

CB: Go on…

NM: I knew ’06 would be a rebuild so I was ok with that, but then UT 07 happened and I became little alarmed. I mean, how do you fail to show any energy against a struggling SEC opponent on the road? But the Cocktail party and the blackout made me forget those losses, as well as the weak showing at Vandy and against Troy. But the dispirited losses were a harbinger, not an outlier, as I found out in 08. And even moreso in 09. And finally these performances became the rule instead of the exception by 10.

What is great about this is how much you see alums, fans, supporters, and other care about the football and other sports at UGA. For some the passion runs hot. Everybody is different and their personalities are different. I watched the Sugar Bowl game last evening. Many times the Hawgs remined me of the Dawgs. You set a single RB 9 yds behind the line of scrimmage. I’d like to see the play chart and how productive that set was. I’d bet Arkansas had no yds on that play and others when they went to the outside. In the closing moments you saw Pryor make a critical 1st down to stave off Arkansas and their pro coach and pro set. Arkansas has talent, few better than Mallet, just like the Dawgs do. But if you watched that game you saw a version of Auburn, MSU, and UG “north”, ie Big 10 OSU. Schemes change, the wishbone, the veer, the pro style, and the spread. But when you look at high school play the option sets and the spread is what high school kids are familar with going forward. It is a lethal and productive offense. This is where my complaint rest with CMR and has for 3 yrs. Belue and the rest of those guys can chalk up those thirty pts number this 6-7 season all they want, but the final score the past few years within the SEC and out with Bobo are not it. I have always used this rule of measurement with a HC…what you see in their W-L numbers the first three years of their tenure is probably what you will see the balance of it. Apply that same rule to Bobo and the current offensive staff. I Belue was still playing at Death Valley under either Hyder of Bazemore, he’d be in the spread. Hyder came out of West Rome and the wishbone. He dropped it when he got in what is currently 1-5A, which many of us refer to as the SEC in GAHS football. CMR allowed Gardner, Martinez, and Evans to drag down his program. He needs to continue to hire assistants like he did when he first came on board. If he does that he will the number again. S&C will go only so far because that is where everyone else starts their base of a program.

I just say win the East next year. I honestly don’t think Richt can get it done, and I hope I am wrong, but the reality is, we will be in a much better position next year to pull the trigger on a new staff after the season, money-wise and McGarity will have more time to prepare… just in case.
So I’m in the “I know we should fire him now because he won’t get it done and I can’t stand another mediocre year, but he has earned/ it’s best for the long run to wait 1 more year” camp… yikes

If it helps, I think I’m right there in that group with you. I’m torn between thinking Richt deserves one more year after all he’s done for the program and not really having any confidence that anything good will come of it.

I had the blessing (curse?) of growing up a Georgia fan in Metro Atlanta while having family in Indiana. I was a huge Bobby Knight fan growing up, warts and thrown plastic chairs and all.

There was a saying that Knight kept in the IU locker room that said, “Success is performing to the limit of your potential.”

It’s a philosophy that Knight honed while coaching at West Point where the recruiting and talent limitations made for tough sledding in the Win’s and Losses category.

But that grounding principle created a culture of basketball at Indiana that saw tremendous success (1973-1997) with almost each senior class playing for a National Championship.

I bring up Knight and that quote because for me it is the starting point for my expectations of Georgia football. Like many, I still have bile in my throat from watching George Godsey saunter down the sideline against, in essence, an NFL defense. Like many, I have seen plenty of teams that have an embarrassment of riches yet suffer from lack of player development, discipline, expectations.

That is why when Richt was hired, I was ecstatic. He talked about hard work, discipline, practicing hard. I remember after his first press conference Steve Kelly (I believe it was Steve from the 1980 team) said something to the effect that he didn’t care if we went 0-11 as long as we played with passion and effort.

I remember fondly after Richt’s first spring practice someone asked him what he thought and paused and chuckled and said, “Well, it looks like we have some folks who need to learn what it means to practice.”

A successful football team is often a strange alchemy, a brew of toughness stamped into the DNA of a team from high expectations and clear leadership. It starts with a coach who can demand toughness and effort and can hold people accountable (assistants included). It also requires a coach to be calm, clear headed (see CMR’s reaction after Hob Nailed Boot in 2001). But you have to have that toughness, those expectations, (“Success is performing to the limit of your potential) to create a certain Culture.

Think about those years from 2001-2005. Forget about the wins. Just think about the losses. Did you ever feel that we simply did not show up? Did you ever feel we weren’t prepared? Did you ever think that effort was simply not there? I didn’t. Not once. The Culture was there.

Without that Culture, you get a lot of soft talented football teams who feel entitled. Occasionally you might catch a supernova of talent (Knowshon, Stafford, Mo Mass), but that is not sustainable. Culture is sustainable. Freakish talent is not. And neither are End Zone Celebration Dances, Black Jerseys, Black Helmets, or Red “I am Georgia” Towels. Without a Culture of Expectations and Consequences, you get what we saw in Memphis and much of this year. See also Goff, Ray and Donnan, Jim.

We lost something special when we lost BVG. Something that I am not so sure now can be replaced. Again, it makes me pause that Richt’s Coaching DNA goes back to Bobby Bowden who for a decade ran the epitome of a talented, soft, entitled, undisciplined football team. It also gives me pause that one of Bowden’s expressed concerns about Richt was that he wasn’t “tough enough” to be a head coach. (This was back when CMR flirted with the Pitt job.) It seems to me, that the Bobby Bowden Coaching Tree (Chuck D’Mato, Brad Scott, Tommy Bowden) that once the genie is out of the bottle and programs can no longer simply rely on sheer talent and the promise of future “recruiting prowess”(a dream team?)– the game is over.

I hope it isn’t. I hope I’m wrong and some new pattern emerges, but I’m not optimistic.

Firstly, I was on the old Vent back then and distinctly remember the Bean/Basher debate. I remember it well because it caused me to mostly quit going there (I was Bainbridge Dawg back then). The reason why is because this debate has nothing to do about UGA football. It’s a purity contest between fans that is just narcissistic and uninteresting to me. What interests me are the decisions the staff make, players, recruiting, ….you know stuff that’s consequential.

My turning point for CMR came during the SCU 16-12 loss in 2007. Had we won that game we might have gone to the mnc. SOS was laughingly ridiculing our playcalling after the game. But ya know what, SOS was right – our O was a damn joke.

Since then my hopes have gotten smashed everytime I start rekindling some new optimism. This season, I really thought with 10 starters returning on O, the exit of CWM, no more directional kicking, and the graduation of a lot of sec-east talent, we’d have a legit change at the sec title game, and perhaps a shot at the mnc. But this season was an absolute fiasco – one of the worst performances of all time. Nothing but a new coach & staff will restore my hopes for the Dawgs.

Doesn’t matter if CMR gets the ‘dream team’. He’ll find a new way to screw up. He always does.

I think Richt should have been replaced after this season and the Liberty Bowl debacle does not bode well for returning us to greatness in 2011. Richt has been a fine coach but fine does not work in this league any longer. The coaching depth chart in the conference when Richt won the 2002 title included just two Natl’ championships (Holtz @ ND & Fulmer @ UT in 98.) The other coaches were Franchione, Tuberville, Saban, Nutt, Cutcliffe, Zook, Jackie Sherrill, Guy Morriss and Woody Widenhofer. When Richt last won the title (2005) the coaching depth chart in the conference still only included 2 NC coaches (Spurrier & Fulmer). The rest of the coaches were Meyer, Tuberville, Miles, Johnson, Nutt, Shula, Croom, Orgeron, and Brooks. In 2005, Spurrier, Miles, and Meyer were in their first year at their schools.

The 2010 season had coaches with a combined 6 National titles in the conference (Meyer -2, Saban – 2, Spurrier -1, Miles -1.) The other established coaches were Petrino, Chizik, Mullen, and Nutt. Phillips, Dooley, and Caldwell were Yr 1 coaches. Richt lost to Petrino, Mullen and Chizik. He only beat the coaches who were in their first year. He looks to be much further away from Saban in his methods and has neither the swagger of Spurrier or Miles. He appears to lack the urgency that Spurrier, Petrino, Chizik, Mullen and Miles all seem to have.

Aside from Meyer leaving and a new coach @ Vandy, the coaching roster appears to be stable. I would not like the odds that Richt is going to turn up the urgency level to that of his competitors. We have been passed by most of the conference in terms of coaching.

Has anyone ever noticed CMR never talks about how to win a National Title, its always about SEC Championships!! I think that is one of the biggest problems with Richt isnt the point of playing to win National Championships?

Personally I like CMR and hope he can work this thing out. I don’t particularly care for another down year, followed by a transition to a new coach and the roll of the dice to see if it all works out. A new coach guarantees nothing except that we have a new coach.

The onus at this point is on the defense and CTG. A great defense covers a multitude of sins. Despite the record the defense was improved this year and I expect further improvement next year. My confidence in Bobo is lacking — at times he seems okay but then he calls games like he did against Central Florida and leaves me mystified. His best friends are coaching the defense.

Despite the seven losses the Dawgs were in every game this year. That was an improvement in and of itself. Looking at the schedule for next year I don’t think ten wins is a long shot.

I like CMR and am pulling for him, but ultimately football is like a business and it is all about results. Being an optimist I think he’ll pull this thing out.

Bloviation for the Dawgnation

Quote Of The Day

“It brings back a great Bulldog running back in Thomas who has NFL playing experience and has had success as a college coach at multiple schools. He also inherits a position that has been built to an elite level by Bryan. And it gives Bryan the opportunity to return to coaching the position he played and the one where he cut his teeth serving as a graduate assistant under wide receiver coach John Eason here at UGA. It also provides him with a new experience as a passing game coordinator.” -- Mark Richt, AB-H, 2/16/15